Walking, resistance training and exercise micro-habits

One exercise I do in my apartment building is intermittent stair climbing (not many people take the stairs, they mostly use the elevator). I sprint up the stairs as fast as I can, then rest in an active state, slowly walking down to catch my breath. Expert advice: I play the theme song from Rocky Balboa on my phone and place it at the top of the stairs. When I feel tired and struggling to climb, the music gets louder, motivating me to keep going.

Once, after a stair climb, I was sweating for another 10 minutes, and even after showering, I was still sweating-my body was still active. A study discovered the role of this "post-workout burn" in fat burning: while more fat is burned during low-intensity exercise, more fat is burned after high-intensity exercise.

In conclusion, if you want to lose weight through exercise, don't focus on the duration of your workout, but rather on the intensity. You can design your own HIIT workout; the basic idea is to exert yourself to the maximum for 15-60 seconds, then rest for 1-5 minutes.

If you want to use a treadmill, you can set different modes. I manually adjust the speed when using both the treadmill and the exercise bike. A good way to do interval training on a treadmill is to watch TV or a game while running (if the gym has a TV), and then do some high-intensity exercises during the commercial breaks. Generally, there are 5-7 minutes of commercials after a 30-minute program, which is a good interval. After the commercials, you can jog slowly to rest and continue watching the program! I especially like this method; my friends and I also do "bicep challenges" during the commercial breaks, trying to lift some lighter dumbbells.

There are many different high-intensity training methods available online. You can search for "HIIT" or "interval training" and then make these exercises fun. In the next section, you'll see how interval training can become a micro-habit.

walk

Walking has many benefits; just look at the human body, and it's clear we were born to walk. In the past, we had to walk to get to different places. Later, we invented various tools, and people walked less often, but the benefits of walking are numerous, and we shouldn't stop walking.

If you want to start with some effective and not-too-tiring exercise, walking is definitely the best choice. Most exercises increase appetite, but one study found that the energy deficit created by walking does not increase appetite. While brisk walking at a voluntary, regulated pace creates a slight energy deficit, it does not cause a compensatory increase in acylated hunger hormones, appetite, or energy intake. This finding supports the role of brisk walking in weight management.

According to the U.S. National Weight Control Registry, most people who successfully lose weight and don't regain it choose walking as their primary form of exercise. In my personal experience, long walks reduce appetite, even more so than endurance training. I highly recommend using walking as a foundational exercise and HIIT as an extra workout, or combining the two by setting a goal for the number of walks and then doing a few sprints. I know this plan sounds disorganized, but a structured plan is suitable for those who already have an exercise routine.

If you're still struggling to get yourself into exercise, a rigid, structured workout plan can be a major obstacle to sticking to it. Consider a less structured plan: walk to the front door and then choose whether to continue walking or do a few sprints along the way. The difficulty of the plan is entirely up to you, meaning that even when you're not feeling well, you have few reasons to say "no" to exercise.

Resistance training

Resistance training is the best exercise for building muscle and offers many benefits, but its effectiveness for weight loss is less well-researched. Many theories suggest that increased muscle mass boosts metabolic rate, but one study indicates that HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is more effective for weight loss because it doesn't reduce fat (it does build muscle). When starting out, I recommend walking and HIIT, as these two exercises offer the greatest initial return on your time and effort.

Nevertheless, resistance training offers greater benefits for daily life than HIIT. It improves posture, enhances agility, alleviates pain caused by weakness, and aids wound healing (physical therapy). Therefore, don't completely abandon resistance training. Seeing yourself become slimmer and healthier will bring you joy. If you learn to enjoy exercise, you'll also fall in love with resistance training.

Exercise micro-habits

If you've never been able to stick to an exercise routine, then you definitely need to try the exercise micro-habit strategy. The micro-habits below are just a few examples; there are certainly many more. Most of these micro-habits will only take you a few seconds-not minutes, not hours. Even the busiest people on Earth have time to complete these micro-habits, and even the laziest people on Earth have the energy to do these exercises. Micro-habits make exercise less daunting, more fun, and ensure we always manage to complete our exercise goals (almost the opposite of all existing exercise plans). Below is a list of exercise micro-habit strategies.

Do one push-up.

Do one pull-up.

Do one sit-up.

Do ten jumping jacks.

Run in place for 30 seconds.

Run on the treadmill for 30 seconds.

Dance along to a song.

Run back and forth up and down the stairs once.

Walk from your front door to the gate of the yard or the mailbox.

Put on your workout clothes (I'm not kidding).

After putting on your workout clothes, do a push-up (or other exercise).

Go to the gym for a stroll without any specific purpose in mind (please don't laugh at me yet, just try it out).

Do 30-second interval training (sprinting, climbing stairs, running in place at your fastest speed, etc., you can do running in place anywhere), or do 30-second moderate-intensity exercise.

Click on a fitness video (or watch a 30-second fitness video).

Stand up and work for a while every two hours, or stand up for a few seconds every hour to wake up your metabolic system.

Exercise overload: Increase the amount of exercise, or do a few different exercises.

You might notice that some similar micro-habits have subtle differences, such as wearing workout clothes, doing a push-up while wearing workout clothes, and going to the gym. For some people, exercising without workout clothes will prevent them from completing extra tasks, as they don't want to exercise in their work clothes. This creates the micro-habit of "wearing workout clothes," since simply putting on workout clothes is enough to get them started. Others may need to actually exercise to develop an exercise habit, and they also need to wear workout clothes, so for them, the most suitable micro-habit is "doing a push-up while wearing workout clothes." Still others only need the micro-habit of "one push-up." I started with one push-up a day, and now I only need the micro-habit of "going to the gym" to achieve good results.

Special micro-habits (unrelated to exercise and diet)

One-Minute Meditation: Meditation is one of the best ways to indirectly lose weight. It can improve many aspects related to weight loss, such as lowering cortisol levels, strengthening willpower, enhancing awareness and focus, and improving sleep-all of which contribute to weight management. Just one minute of meditation can make a difference-give it a try! You can search for videos on "one-minute meditation" to learn how to practice.

Meditation overload task: meditate for another 1 minute, or 7 minutes.